Recently, it has become popular to conduct meetings via videoconferencing, sometimes called telepresence meetings. In a telepresence environment, locations from around the globe are connected via high speed video bandwidth communications links, and an appropriate conferencing bridge or other connection (e.g.; point to point) for managing same. The user end of these high bandwidth links typically contains a telepresence conference room comprising one or more video screens, sound equipment, etc. Many of the higher end videoconferencing systems can cost upward of $200,000 to $300,000 for the room full of required screens, audio, etc.
Moreover, to implement high speed videoconferencing acceptable to most businesses requires extremely high bandwidth lines, and an expensive communications infrastructure. These telepresence systems are not simple Internet video streams, but are implements using dedicated bandwidth over private networks, wherein each link can require 20-30 megabit/second connections.
The cost of installing these hi bandwidth connections is excessive. Even when shared connections are used, there is typically a permanent 20-30 megabit per second line required from each telepresence conference room across a long haul private network, to a private bridging device.
Another issue confronting inter-organizational telepresence meetings is the scheduling and reservation of resources and personnel. To appreciate the problem first requires an understanding of how such scheduling and reservation of resources is conducted within a single organization.
Assuming a single organization (e.g.; one company) with plural locations desires to conduct a telepresence meeting among its locations, Telepresence systems exist to reserve and implement such a meeting. Typically, a routing manager computer (RMC) is used to interface with the company's standard calendaring software program. A private dial plan is used to connect all the Telepresence rooms, and the RMC operates in a manner analogous to a local Internet Protocol (IP) Private Branch Exchange (PBX).
Because the RMC is trusted and behind the firewall of the organization, it may interface with the calendaring software of the individual participants, and hence, facilitate the telepresence meeting by reserving personnel and conferencing resources, such as Telepresence equipped rooms in the company.
When meetings are to be conducted across multiple organizations, a problem arises. Typically, companies will not permit some third party computer to access the calendaring software or reserve resources of the company. As a result, Telepresence meetings among plural companies are usually set up through ad-hoc scheduling such as what is known as “meet me” systems, or by arranging the Telepresence meeting with other companies in advance through unstructured email, phone calls, etc.
As can be appreciated from the above, the reservation and implementation of telepresence meetings using available technology is bandwidth intensive, expensive, and cumbersome to implement. Additionally, the scheduling and reservation of resources for such Telepresence meetings across multiple companies is cumbersome and non-automated. Therefore, a need exists for an improved method and apparatus for implementing such telepresence meetings, both within a company and across multiple companies.
The above and other objects of the invention are achieved by employing a telepresence manager computer (TMC) and a plurality of Telepresence Interface Computers (TIC) to implement Telepresence conferences among multiple, potentially unrelated entities. Each “domain”—typically a single organization, group, or company, continues to employ and operate its own RMC, similar to the prior art described above. However, a system wide TMC interfaces with the RMCs on plural domains, so that the combined operation of the RMCs and the TMC operate almost as if there were once large RMC and the numerous companies among which the Telepresence conference is to be implemented were really one large one company
To ensure proper security is implemented, each domain has its own TIC that restricts rights and privileges, and thus precludes the TMC from reserving resources or personnel within that organization in violation of the policies of that particular organization.
Finally, once the Telepresence conference is established, each location may determine that its media stream is to be carried to and from the conference by the domain's private network, by one or more third party networks, or a combination of both.
These and other advantages of the present invention will be best appreciated form the following description.